The man who gifted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a box of horse manure on Saturday says it was a “prank” and an exercise of his First Amendment rights.
“The thing I live by is a rule of transparency and I was exercising my First Amendment rights,” psychologist Robby Strong told AL.com in a statement after providing evidence that he was behind the prank.
Calling the prank an “act of political theater,” Strong said he wanted draw attention to a number of national issues, including how “Republicans have done nothing for the American worker.”
“The fact that [Republicans] can be so brazen and act with such impunity tells me that we have to be more brazen with our activism and maybe a bit more aggressive,” he explained.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a report at Mnuchin’s Bel-Air home around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday after a neighbor noticed a suspicious package on his driveway, which was later deemed to be non-threatening.
LAPD Sgt. R. Briggs said when the bomb squad opened the package they found horse manure.
Strong told 89.3 KPCC, a Southern Californian radio station, that he got the manure from a friend who owns horses and doesn’t regret his decision, which he even bragged about in a series of Facebook posts and tweets.
This is gonna go down in the anals of history.#mnuchinchristmas#ghostofchristmaspresent#projectsecretsanta#taxlawishorseshit pic.twitter.com/4dWYWxsl77
— Dr. Robert (@RobertStrong13) December 24, 2017
“What I did, I would like to compare to what Jesus did when he went into the temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers, who were exploiting the people financially in the name of religion. I feel like that’s what the GOP has done to the American people,” he explained.
Strong claimed that Secret Service interviewed him on Sunday at his L.A. home but did not arrest him.
Secret Service spokesman Cody Starken confirmed to the Associated Press on Monday that a person turned themselves into the LAPD and the agency interviewed them. While he declined to reveal the identity of this person, he said that the Secret Service takes all threats seriously.
